QING DYANSTY, 18TH CENTURY

The use of camphor wood as a material for this very finely carved chest indicates that it would certainly have been used to store clothes from the Imperial wardrobe. Camphor wood, like sandalwood is very fragrant but additionally is known to repell cloth eating insects and this made it an ideal choice for a box designed for the storage of clothes. A slightly larger rectangular zitan 'Nine Dragon' chest carved with a very similar design in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, is illsutrated in Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2002, p. 278, no. 235.